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In an early meeting between Tim Leiweke and the board of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment in spring of 2013, the board asked their future CEO who he would like to hire as the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Brian Burke, Leiweke told them, knowing full well what that meant. He liked Brian Burke.

As Burke had recently been fired by the men in the room, it was a bit of an awkward moment. Leiweke has since talked about planning a Leafs parade, so it wasn’t the last.

Leiweke’s eventful year has stretched into the summer. On Tuesday, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, a terrific reporter, said Leiweke “will be leaving the company soon.”

A little more than a year after taking over as CEO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, Tim Leiweke is denying rumours he'll soon be leaving the company. (Steve Russell / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

“I’m committed,” said Leiweke. “I’m looking forward to the end of the season with TFC, and the upcoming season with the Raptors and defending our (Atlantic Division) title, and getting the Leafs back in the playoffs. Anyone who thinks that at the end of the day I’m not going to be here through the duration of those seasons, they’re wrong.”

There was no promise of an indefinite timeline; there was just that. Another high-level MLSE source indicated that “soon” encompassed the upcoming season, at least.

So he’s probably in for one year, and that seems about right. Despite his short tenure, a departure fit with a lot of what has been floating around: that Leiweke’s family found the move to the howling winter difficult; that there was friction between Leiweke and the board of MLSE, which includes two colossus companies who do not get along, and who have come to see Leiweke as a man who over-promised. People will tell you Larry Tanenbaum drifted away from Leiweke’s vision earlier this year, as well. Toronto’s NFL bid, a priority, seems close to doomed.

The 57-year-old Leiweke has a huge amount of control, and Rogers and Bell prefer being in charge. The notion that Leiweke was eyeing the exit — just to know where the door is, in case — has been whispered about for months.

So sure, he’s denying it, and some of those denials are unequivocal. He insists he has no contractual limitations arising from his departure from AEG, as has been reported. He says his wife has not, in fact, moved back to California.

“I had to double-check, but she was out walking in Yorkville today, so that’s good news,” Leiweke said, with a chuckle.

Further, Leiweke says ownership is functional, and that “there’s been no friction between me and ownership, until today.”

He says he is focused on his current raft of work, which includes securing a Raptors practice facility, the 2016 NBA all-star and 2018 NHL all-star game bids, the Leafs’ 100th anniversary, phase one of the renovation of BMO Field for soccer — it’s too late to refit it for a CFL field at present, so David Braley missed that particular boat — and all that. There are announcements coming soon.

“I know I’m not here forever,” Leiweke says. “We’re in the middle in what I would consider a turnaround in the culture, and that’s what I’m good at, and that’s why they brought me here. Let’s play that out.”

But the most important thing he said is that he’s committed until next spring, or so. That’s the horizon, right now.

Leiweke’s sometimes-blundering words can overshadow the fact that he’s done quite a lot, and on balance, it’s positive. Masai Ujiri fits the Raptors, and has great potential to reshape the franchise. Drake, a Leiweke celebrity association, is a key part of any hope of landing Kevin Durant in 2016, and sources indicate there is some unknowable amount of hope there. The money thrown at TFC was at least a different route.

And the fact that the Maple Leafs invested in a hockey analytics department Tuesday — hiring Darryl Metcalf, the creator of the brilliant analytics data site Extraskater.com, and data-oriented hockey bloggers Cam Charron and Rob Pettapiece — just underscores how much has changed under Leiweke. He hired Brendan Shanahan to run the Leafs; Shanahan hired 28-year-old Kyle Dubas, the bright young GM from the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds who has embraced analytics.

The last Leafs regime never spent their analytics budget, and it was pure negligence. Shanahan hired Dubas in part because Dubas told him things about hockey that the Hall of Famer said he didn’t know. Numbers aren’t a magic bullet, but they’re a bullet, and deeper analysis is sweeping through the league. The Leafs are exhibiting curiosity in the service of being good, and that’s progress. I have no doubt Tim Leiweke would like to see them make the playoffs.

But make no mistake: this was the beginning of the end. Tim Leiweke came into Toronto swinging around giant cudgels of hope and possibility, talking a great game.

But soon — or soon enough — the travelling show will move on down the road, and leave a still-coalescing legacy behind.

What do you think?

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